Corn Commentary

Ethanol Makes Grilling Easier

Grilling on the go just got easier and more environmentally-friendly with a new product that is made from solidified ethanol.

The FlameDisk® is the first ethanol product to be used exclusively for outdoor grilling, according to manufacturer Sologear, the Wisconsin-based company that invented the product. They market FlameDisk as “more eco-friendly than charcoal and lighter fluid because it features renewable ethanol. Ethanol is extremely clean burning and generates 90% fewer pollutants than charcoal. The FlameDisk®’s aluminum casing is also recyclable.”

Each FlameDisk utilizes one pint of locally produced corn ethanol. “We buy our ethanol from an ethanol manufacturer in 200 proof,” said Sologear president Chad Sorenson. “Then we convert it from a liquid into a solid with a special chemical process that we’ve developed. Nothing like this has ever been done to my knowledge.”

Sorenson says using ethanol for grilling purposes is just a small market compared to the transportation use of ethanol, “But it has a lot of significant potential with about 3.8 billion grilling occasions in the U.S. every year and we are already selling product overseas so we think over time this could be a significant new use of ethanol that may have not been considered prior to this.”

The recyclable packaging for the FlameDisk includes a corn emblem that Sorenson says signifies the product as corn-based and proclaims it’s eco-friendliness. “It assures consumers that this is a totally clean burning and safe fuel to use to cook your food,” he said. “Helping consumers that this is a natural fuel that comes from natural biomatter is useful.”

The FlameDisk is already on the market and available at a number of retail stores like Ace Hardware, Home Depot, and True Value with a suggested retail price of $4.99.